Dog Brothers Photos Up - June 06

Check it out party people. The photos have been posted for the June 2006 Gathering of the Pack. There were over 40 fighters this time including people from New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, England and of course the fifty states. Was an awesome event and worth checking out live if you do the FMA's or just enjoy watching some good MMA w/ weapons. Next event is the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving. Enjoy...

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To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without spilling your Guinness.Sun "Fu Man JhooJits" Tzu, the Art of War & Guinness

Your seeing shittastic grappling in still photography? Ummm... ok. Don't know what to make of that statement? I guess the guys fighting didn't pose correctly when the photographer yelled cheese? :5zombie:

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:icon_twis .
To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without spilling your Guinness.Sun "Fu Man JhooJits" Tzu, the Art of War & Guinness

So you have found some pictures of still photography to illustrate a point about shitty grappling or as we like to call it here crappling. So I'd like to raise a few points.

1. Do you know the what the context of the pictures are without having seen the action? In the first picture what I see first and foremost is a guy controlling the knife of his opponent which in the context of the fighting portion of the Gathering is to be considered a live blade with a good cut or stab ending the fight. He is not going for an armbar and indeed is not in the position to go for an armbar. However his opponent is not in the position to stab him either. From the picture it looks like he is accomplishing his goal. Without context it would be tough to assume crappling or amazing grappling for that matter. Do you use picture perfect technique while avoiding being sliced or stabbed with a knife?

2. Here you have a picture of what we can reasonably consider an attempted rear naked choke with a guy defending it (we'll call the defender 'batman' because of his shirt). Where is the crappling here? Is it because the guy is defending the choke by tucking his chin and taking pressure off his neck/face? Or maybe it's the hand positioning of the attacker isn't correct or his ankles are crossed? Look at the pictures that go with the picture you provided. They show 'batman' mounted on him with a stick, 'batman' pressing the stick into his trachea, 'batman' escaping rear control with stick in hand and finally it shows 'batman's' opponent with a nice stick inflicted injury to the side of the head. Maybe 'batman' opponent has no idea how to grapple and finish the choke but was able for a moment to prevent 'batman' from inflicting more damage? This isn't a submission wrestling or BJJ tournament.

3. Here you have a picture of what exactly? 'Black shirt's' head is tucked nicely preventing the choke so I guess your criticism has to be regarding the penetration. Could it be a shot attempt where they have traveled across the mat with 'black shirt' duck walking and eventually ending up on his knees? Could be 'black shirt' didn't shoot at all but only changed levels and couldn't get penetration because of punyo strikes to the back? Could it be that 'black shirt' isn't trying a takedown at all but rather applying a fang choke to the knee joint of 'yellow' while 'yellow' punyo's him to the back? I guess Poidog can comment further on this fight because he is wearing the yellow shirt. I'll send him the link to this thread so he can address it himself if he wishes.

So what do we have here. In still photography you have identified "crappling" without context. Never mind the fighters are allowed to hit with knives/sticks at full speed with full strength. Never mind they are allowed to elbow, knee, head butt, punch, kick, use small joint manipulation, utilize chokes, neck cranks, ankle locks, kneebars etc. Yet somehow in all this they are not exhibiting picture perfect grappling. Somehow these guys should all look like the fighters you see in the UFC. (Apparently even the pictures we don't see on Sherdog because they hit the editing room floor due to awkward positions of transition or other weird positions that don't look good in magazines and websites.) I guess they will have to start only letting in competitors who have the awesome grapple and not just open it up for people with the balls to show up and fight full contact with weapons.

I'll tell you my take. I think it is awesome for guys to come from all over the world to step into this environment and fight in this style. Many of whom don't have the awesome grapple or even know how to grapple **at all** but still have the balls to say '**** it' and fight anyway. I think that it's easy to say someone shoulda/coulda from their computer chair who doesn't really know what it's like until they are getting hit with a 32" stick with a 1 1/4" diameter from a 200+ pound guy who knows how to apply leverage and strength while simultaneously defending punches, head butts and elbows to the face. But, that's just my opinion. Now, excuse me while I go into a Pride fighting thread and argue about how so and so should have used a flying DDT from the top rope.

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:icon_twis .
To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without spilling your Guinness.Sun "Fu Man JhooJits" Tzu, the Art of War & Guinness